Watch this 29 minute video.
The design of the Leading Libraries series was informed by the idea of 21st century public leadership developed from some ideas created by Catherine Needham and Catherine Mangan at the University of Birmingham as they researched the new requirements
of public service leaders back in 2014.
This research is still under way and it is a live conversation about how we need to lead differently in this new world. If you would like to learn more about the 21st century public servant approach, you will find the report here.
For the report, a wide range of public service leaders were interviewed during the research process. There was particular emphasis on two major changes in context.
Citizens
Citizens are wanting their public services to perform differently, they want to co-produce and co-design services.
Expectations are changing, citizens expect to be in dialogue with service producers now.
This emphasis on reflection, involvement and dialogue forms an important part of the capabilities in this programme.
Organisations
There is a change in the way organisations are working.
During the pandemic, for example, many organisations came together very quickly to collaborate, integrate, share staff and create joint solutions to newly arising problems.
Consequently, there has been a shift in the way people think about organisations and culture, and people are more conscious of the networks outside of organisations when designing new solutions.
New roles for the 21st century leader
The research emphasised the need for new roles in order to be effective leaders in the public service in the 21st century. These new roles differ from the traditional managerial leadership skills. Of course excellent managerial skills
are still very important in leadership - we need to know how to plan, organise service delivery, manage projects and lead our staff. However, the research tells us that these skills are no longer sufficient in our networked and joined
up world.
As you read through a selection of these new roles below, consider the roles you already play in your current position and what new skills you might need in order to lead from these different positions.
Municipal entrepreneur
The municipal entrepreneur thinks about how best to spend scarce resources, including the resources that citizens bring to the relationship.
They know what does and doesn't work, identifying elements that require a new approach.
The municipal entrepreneur can pull together the strands of different organisations, roles and expertise required to deliver such a programme.
Navigator
The navigator role is key within the complex world of public services that we have inherited and developed.
Public servants need to act as "SatNavs" for people, or perhaps find ways of giving citizens the "GPS" and enabling them to access appropriate resources independently.
Resource weaver
The role of the resource weaver is to identify resources available across a system, including within communities, and create something better than the sum of its parts.
This could be a housing officer tapping into support available for a potentially vulnerable tenant, a social worker helping to find a lonely carer a choir to sing with or cancer nurse helping to ensure someone has applied for benefits.
Storyteller
We know how powerful it is when public servants tell stories of how our residents experience our services, e.g. patient journey mapping.
What kinds of stories do we need to tell about the organisations and places in which we live and work to create a powerful and positive narrative?
System architect
A system architect is someone who can create new systems and processes designed around people, for people.
They can see the flaws in current systems and dismantle those that don't add value.
New capabilities for the 21st century leader
The research highlighted the difference between the delivery (or 'hard') skills and connective (or 'soft') skills. This programme focuses on the connective skills of leadership, i.e. the ability to work interpersonally, relate to other
people and to be a connective leader who can synthesise and organise other people in order to deliver.
There is also an emphasis throughout the programme on reflective learning and relational practice.
These modules contain numerous opportunities for reflective thinking to consider your own practice rather than just taking in theory and ideas.
We recommend strongly that you pause as you work through the materials in order to get the most benefit and learn more about your own leadership.
A shift in leadership emphasis
In summary, we are moving away from the heroic individual leader that the 20th century leadership models encouraged towards a collaborative, distributed and relational way of leading.
Heroic individual
- Unilateral power
- Authoritative meaning making
- Known practice
- Driving results
Collaborative relational
- Distributed power
- Collective meaning-making
- Novel practice
- Thriving together
A few words from Professor Catherine Mangan
Generic skills are becoming as important as professional skills, with soft skills becoming more highly valued. However there is also an increasing emphasis on 'hard' skills, such as contracting and decommissioning. We are seeing the development
of a distinction between what we might consider 'techno-professional' skills and the more generic cross-sectoral skills. These new roles add an additional layer of complexity, they suggest that public servants need to offer leadership,
not just within their own organisation but within a complex system where the people they need to convince to follow them may well be citizens living within their community.
We need human leaders who are able to empathise with
the public who are on the receiving end of public services. They must be able to listen, make sense of complex issues and create innovative solutions working with others.
These roles are about leadership without an answer and,
in fact, without necessarily knowing the right questions to ask.
The key question we need to ask ourselves is how we can develop and support people into this broad range of roles, and how we lead and manage the workforce of
the future.'
New leadership - new capabilities
Here are some interesting quotes that were taken directly from the participants in the research. As you read the quotes, you may want to reflect on how the ideas being expressed might apply to your own role or your wider work.
‘Valued outcomes in public services are not things that can be delivered, they are always co-produced’
We need a mechanism to identify those things [people] want to change and come together to work on them.’
We need to focus
on] distributed and collaborative models of leading - Hero leaders aren’t the answer. Rather than emphasising the charisma and control of an individual, new approaches focus on leadership as dispersed throughout the organisation
[This
all requires] a different style of leadership: ‘The concept of leadership is changing from being one where are expected to perform to one that enables others to be effective.’
This is an approach which, ‘… requires being with
people and allowing them to be themselves, listening, noticing, observing and deploying yourself accurately in situations…. it’s about making teams and networks effective...
We need people who are really good with people and
can form relationships, who are able to learn quickly.
You need to be prepared to get out there and mingle with the real world and other people. And that’s emotionally draining. So when I go home in the evening…I’m really drained.
You
need spaces where you take yourself apart and sort it out with the fact that the organisation is expecting you to glide along like a swan looking serenely happy with no mistakes whatsoever.
We put huge amount of store in activity
and need to get better at valuing reflection and anticipating. The risk is if we focus on here and now we may not be able to transform and innovate. How do you slow it all down?
Continue to: Building 21st century leadership practice
Print Page
